We had struggled with one officer who was consistently insubordinate to me in my role as Captain of the Fire Department. We suspended him once for disobeying a direct order from me on a mutual aid brush fire and then falsifying his story to our chief stating he had followed orders from a Croton Falls Officer. When reached for verification, the Croton Falls officer confirmed the story was falsified. The four top officers spent many hours attempting to find an approach to have this individual show some sort of respect and alliance to our chain of command in the fire dept.
It was very difficult for me to relate to this officer's personal values. He stated directly to me at the wake of Bob Dalzell who had dedicated so much of his life to preservation of firefighting history at the Firefighters museum in Hudson NY: "you don't realize how much I don't give a fuck". Another senior member on another occasion at a department picnic attacked him because he was bragging about sexual conquests and bragging about photos of such and we all knew the girl he spoke of. His set of morales does not relate to most socially acceptable norms.
The real trouble seems to have begun 9/15/09. We held a car fire drill at the South Salem Firehouse. Upon returning to our firehouse, two members came up to me bragging how two ex-chiefs lined up Tanker 1 and Engine 140 side by side full of firefighters and 'drag raced' heading West on Route 138.
Chief Hughes did not want to single out the problematic officer for another repeated string of issues including playing soccer with the plastic Jesus from the Fire Dept's nativity set. He called in a number of newer members of the department and listed off a long string of issues that were occurring at the fire house including breach of the Chief's car and desk, broken items around the fire house with no accountability, my gear and car being tampered with, two other members gear being tampered with... Witnesses stated the problematic officer was responsible for severals of the incidents.
The following week, President Al Melillo was in our Chief's office screaming at the top of his lungs in rage at Chief Walter Hughes: "I am going to fucking run someone against you and force you out of office" as I was walking past the office. He yells at me to come into the office: "And you, you fuck, you are not to fucking drive the fucking chief's car". He demands the keys to the car and I oblige. I skip that evening's drill and have Chief Hughes drive me home. Chief Hughes informs me that President Melillo told Chief Hughes to "just let things go" in regards to the behavior of the members and that Chief Hughes had "No Right" to address the members as a group. Chief Hughes replied "Like I should let the drag racing go?" to which President Melillo exploded in rage. Later on I observed that neither of the ex-chief's had signed the drill sheet from 9/15/09 even though multiple people stated the contrary.
The next single event and most damaging was the election of the newest commissioner to the Golden's Bridge Fire District. Immediately after his election he deliberately stood up in front of the entire department and attempted to embarrass Chief Rich Barrett. I stated in defense of Chief Barrett: "Holy Shit". I could not believe that the gall this man had to pull this stunt. His clear intent was to embarrass Chief Barrett in front of the Department. This was the first week in January 2010.
Next came the evening that changed GBFD for the worse. January 26, 2010 we were the second due department at the Deer Park Tavern Structure Fire. Our working crews were split into two groups by me as the senior officer on site for our department. I put NIck Turi and Alex Roth at the front door while I worked in the back of the structure with Chris Weigert, Shane Collins and the Katonah FD. We had been working several hours and Alex Roth came up to everyone working in the back of the structure and announced "Johnny was wasted and got thrown off of the fire scene". By the time I was done working the scene at approximately 9AM, Commissionner Robert Melillo had already notified Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Ed Brancati and they instructed Walter Hughes to suspend Chief John Barrett. The below law was broken:
TOWN LAW, section 176.11
...Such rules and regulations SHALL NOT AUTHORIZE any member of the Board of fire commissioners to interfere with the duties of the chief or assistant chief at such times as the department or any company or squad thereof is on duty.
...Such rules and regulations SHALL NOT AUTHORIZE any member of the Board of fire commissioners to interfere with the duties of the chief or assistant chief at such times as the department or any company or squad thereof is on duty.
Follow on interviews conducted by Chief Walter Hughes revealed that Commissioner Melillo left his post of pump operator and was negligent of his duties per South Salem Chief Joe Posadas who was acting as the water supply Chief. Commissioner Melillo's actions jeopardized the working crews on the fire scene. When I left the fire scene at apporximately 9AM, George Tockstein was brought to the scene by Commissioner Melillo to either act as Senior officer on scene or as pump operator for water supply. Ex-Chief Mike Cassar interviewed George Tockstein and Commissioner Melillo and inquired who the Senior Officer was on scene, to which George Tockstein pointed to Commissioner Melillo.
From Ex-Chief Cassar:
"I was looking at some pictures I had taken at the Deer Park Tavern fire and stumbled upon a picture of Robert Melillo away from his post as a driver. This is where he ended up bringing John Barrett and Walter Hughes up on charges. My question is, why didn't Robert get brought up on charges for leaving his post?"
Further interviews revealed that Commissioner Melillo per Batallion Chief John Jackson and Katonah Chief Paul Bauer was "obviously out to get" Chief Barrett.
Another interviewed conducted by Chief Walter Hughes and witnessed by me of Battalion Chief Gary Weber revealed that Chief Weber interviewed Chief Barrett on scene and indicated that he did not appear to be drunk or 'wasted' as testified by Alex Roth. Chief Weber indicated that Chief Barrett appeared to be in a 'deep sleep'. Chief Weber is also a law enforcement officer and is very capable of determining drunken behavior. Chief John Barrett had in fact responded to the fire call while on prescription Ambien. His condition was compounded by Vicks Formula 44 for a cold. Chief Barrett was a first responder for FDNY on 9/11 and was on prescription Ambien to assist his sleeplessness.
Commissioner Melillo also contacted firefighter Shane Collins in an attempt to "get" me following this evening. Shane advised me that Commissioner Melillo was asking if he could include me in any knowledge of John Barrett's condition on the evening of Jan. 26, 2010. Since I was working in the rear of the structure, I did not encounter Chief Barrett while he was on the fire scene. As demonstrated by my letter on this website from the beginning of Feb. 2010, John Barrett was immediately suspended by the district without ever being interviewed. Nor was I ever interviewed as the Senior officer on the fire scene. Selective witnesses Alex Roth and Nick Turi testified that Chief Barrett was wasted.
The Golden's Bridge Fire District then realized they had over stepped their authority by suspending John Barrett. They instructed Chief Walter Hughes to state that he suspended Chief Barrett. In fact, Chief Hughes had not even conducting any investigation. Chief Barrett was then given a 4 month suspension (to ensure he would be suspended for the May 2010 elections). Chief Hughes was questioned whether he allowed Chief Barrett to drive home from the fire scene. (It should be noted that Chief Hughes was on scene as the acting Paramedic for Westchester EMS, not as GBFD Chief). He responded he had driven Chief Barrett home. He letter went back to the district and informed them that he had misstated that he drive Chief Barrett home.
Walter Hughes was given a 45 day suspension for his statement. The Fire district asked him to not share that he was being suspended as they knew this would be viewed negatively.
So GBFD headed into the 2010 Election cycle. George Tockstein ran against Walter Hughes for Chief. This was a clear insult to Chief Hughes put together by several members banding against him. Randy Sant was lied to in that he was told Chief Rich Barrett was not interested in running for 2nd Asst. Chief. Randy withdrew from the election when he learned in fact he was lied to.
Al Melillo was nominated by the Nominating Committee lead Commissioner Robert Melillo to run for 1st Asst. Chief. Chief John Barrett decided he had enough of the gamemanship of these people and decided he would not seek any position in the department.
Chief Hughes defeated George Tockstein in the election, Rich Barrett was elected 2nd Asst. Chief. Commissioners Robert Melillo and Joe Simoncini both refused to ratify Chief Richard Barrett as 2nd Asst. Chief. They officially would not cite any reason. Commissioner Steve MInes even confided in me that he was against the votes of commissioners Melillo and Simoncini:
"I don't get it? You ARE a mensch!
Does this have to do with last nights unfortunate news? I did everything I could.
Literally on my knees to no avail.
sm
On Apr 19, 2010, at 10:01 PM, Brian Lynch wrote:
I remember you even called me a mensch once......."
So even though Chief Rich Barrett was guaranteed that any issues he had outside of the fire department were now closed and behind him (yes there is an audio tape of this as well, the commissioners assured him of this), Chief Barrett was denied the position of 2nd Asst. Chief by sheer bias, nepotism and cronyism. So they ran George Tockstein in an illegal 'special election'. Not all members were invited, some of the more 'malleable' members were instructed that they were not allowed to vote for Chief Barrett. Chief Barrett eventually filed an Article 78 with Westchester County Court to reverse the illegal 'special election'.
To be continued......
